BROOM-RAPES, BALANOPHOREAE, RAFFLESIACEaE.187the capitulura of a coraposite, by a whorl of irabricating scales, of which the lowerare shorter and broader, and the upper longer, narrower, and pointed at the apex.These scales being stiff, soraewhat shiny, and varying in colour frora a waxenyellow to orange or red—in the case of Langsdorffia Moritziana brown-red,—thewhole inflorescence has a vivid reserablance to certain iraraortelles, naraely, thelarge species of Helichrysum occurring at the Cape. The inflorescences bearingmale flowers are elongated and egg-shaped, those possessing only female flowers areshorter and capitulate. The seeds dropped from the nut-like fruits, which arepulpy intemally, have no special integument. The erabryo exhibits no trace ofFig. 38.—Langsdor;gla hypogcea, from Central America.cotyledons or radicle, but consists of an undifferentiated group of cells which raaybe likened to a tiny bulbil. Seeds of this kind gerrainate like those of Lathrcea, and upon raeeting withthe root of a tree or shrub suitable for prey, develop into larger tubercles and havea remarkable effect upon the substratum. The cortex of the host-root is destroyedat the place of adhesion of the tubercle, and its wood is laid open, lacerated, andunravelled. The woody bundles are diverted frora their previous direction, ascendtowards the parasitic tubercle, which raeantime has grown into a full-sized tuber,and spread out like fans. The cells and vessels of the parasite penetrate betweenthe ascending wood-fibres, and this results in the formation of a zone at the placeof union of the parasite and root, where cells and vessels belonging to both inter¬lace, traverse, and join one another, coalescing completely in exactly the same wayas happens in the .case of the species of Toothwort. A similar phenomenon occursalso when one of the wavy stems of Langsdorffia comes into contact with a rootadapted to the purpose. The cortex of the root is demolished at the place of